The official ribbon cutting at Hunters Point South Park took place Thursday morning (Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)
Aug. 6 2020 By Michael Dorgan
Park officials cut the ribbon Thursday to mark the unveiling of several new smart garbage cans at Hunters Point South Park.
The event was held along the waterfront where one of four new “Bigbelly” garbage cans have been installed.
The four cans were added to the park last month and three additional bins are expected to be installed in the coming weeks.
NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver attended the ribbon-cutting, joined by Queens Parks Commissioner Michael Dockett and members of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy.
Silver said that the new “Bigbelly” cans will help keep the park clean if park-goers use them.
He said they have a built-in sensor that notifies personnel when they are full, which prevents them from overflowing. Overflowing trash cans have been a major problem at the park and have been a magnet for rodents.
Silver said that an important feature of the “Bigbelly” cans is that they can be used without touching the handle.
“What we like about them [Bigbelly garbage cans] is they are hands-free,” Silver said. “At a time of COVID, you can just use your foot, it opens up and you can throw your trash away,” he said.
A green Bigbelly garbage can at the northwest of the Oval green (Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)
.@NYCParks Commissioner Mitchell Silver demonstrates how to use the new @BigBellySolar garbage cans at #HuntersPointSouthPark.@queenspost @LICPOST @NYCParks #LICPost #QueensPost #bigbelly #HPPC @LICWaterfront @HuntersPointPks pic.twitter.com/NQ8Z5T5exx
— Michael Dorgan (@MDorganNYC) August 6, 2020
Rob Basch, president of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, said that the trash cans can hold five times as much garbage as a standard trash can and use solar energy to compact the garbage.
He said that the cans have already made a big impact in keeping the park clean.
“They keep the garbage in and they keep the rats out,” Basch said.
Basch said that food waste inside the new garbage cans can’t be reached by rodents. The cans can only be opened by pushing down the foot lever.
Park officials cut the ribbon Thursday to mark the unveiling of several new smart @BigBellySolar garbage cans at Hunter’s Point South Park. @queenspost @LICPOST @NYCParks #LICPost #QueensPost #bigbelly #HPPC @LICWaterfront @HuntersPointPks #HuntersPoint pic.twitter.com/MkuNQl0UJF
— Michael Dorgan (@MDorganNYC) August 6, 2020
Earlier this summer, there was a much bigger problem with trash and rodents since the regular garbage cans often overflowed. Many park-goers also dumped their trash on top of them or beside them.
Basch and Silver encouraged people to either use the new trash cans or take their trash home with them when they visit the park.
The seven cans cost $43,000 and were financed by the HPPC and a grant via the City Parks Foundation.
?️”They keep the garbage in and they keep the rats out!”
HPPC President Rob Basch said @BigBellySolar garbage cans store 5 times more garbage than a standard can.@queenspost @LICPOST @NYCParks #LICPost #QueensPost #bigbelly #HPPC @LICWaterfront @HuntersPointPks #HuntersPoint pic.twitter.com/l449mdNsse
— Michael Dorgan (@MDorganNYC) August 6, 2020
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9 Comments
This park used to be a local community park, now it is a destination park that seems to invite the kind of ppl that show zero discretion around young kids/families. Some actually live in the Hunters Point buildings. There are pros/cons to low income housing and this is playing out as expected. Entitled ppl that want to contribute zero to the community and act like they own the place as soon as they move in. It’s the American spirit! USA USA!!
$43,000. Money could have been spent on providing security for overnight and early morning hours when the park has drug use and public drinking and noise. Doesn’t the park close at 10:00? It truly has become a negative side of the neighborhood.
You can put all the cans in the world around but if the (low)class acts don’t use them, then yes, it is a giant waste of money. Used to love it here, but hate this neighborhood so much now.
An unbelievable waste of LIMITED RESOURCES in a period of ECONOMIC DOWNTURN and LACK OF TAX REVENUE it ALSO shows how LAZY we’ve become become THAT WE’RE UNABLE TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR ACTIONS and WASTE
$43,000 dollars would have hired some part-time workers and if you wanted to look really charitable would have hired unemployed at risk homeless people, our new neighbors many living in the local homeless hotels and given them a job, given them your fancy tee-shirts, hand them brooms and dustpans to clean up the park for a wage. But artificial intelligence once again in the form of a smart big belly garbage can – displaces people and workers.
People still have to place the garbage in the bin. Makes no difference, people have to place the garbage in the BIN. Wire bin price $35.00, practically indestructible, when it rains water runs right through it. No sensor to inform a park worker it’s full, just turn your fat head and look at the bin and if it needs to be emptied, then empty it out. We are in big trouble here with idiots running everything from the Mayor on down. You priced the bins at $43,000 for seven bins that’s over $6,142 per bin. This in NY – they will be stolen for sure…. just like the circular stainless steel grates surrounding the base of the trees in the park, steel corner grates sewer covers and even man hole covers going missing throughout the neighborhood.
I’m a homeowner at 3615-10th Long Island city and we have no alternate parking, or street cleaning
We are basically living in middle if garbage
$43,000 freakin dollars for seven garbage cans!!! And we wonder why this City had no reserve resources to handle this pandemic!!
“The seven cans cost $43,000…”
//mind explodes